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Georg Simon Ohm (Five Papers, 1825-1853)

OHM, Georg Simon (1789-1854). "Vorläufige Anzeige des Gesetzes, nach welchem Metalle die Contakteletricität leiten", in: Annalen der Physik, 1825, series II vol. 4, part 1, section 5, pp. 79-83. Offered in the entire volume of [12], 476 pp, with 4 folding charts, 6 engraved plates (2 folding, including one of the barometric pressures of the North Pole region and North America). Nice condition, crisp and fresh, in cloth-backed marbled boards (ca. 1940). There is a small punch/hole of about 3mm at the bottom right corner of the spine. $1300

This is Ohm's first appearance in print, and the first appearance of milestone Die Galvanische Kette Mathematische Bearbeitet (published in 1827, and which was the fully developed presentation of his theory of electricity), known as Ohm's Law.

Provenance: formerly from the Library of Bernhard Meining; then, the Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahtforschung; and on the USAAF library at Wright Patterson, and finally to the Library of Congress. "Wright Field Library" is rubber stamped on the text block's top and bottom. Very well traveled.

Provenance: from the"Provinzil-Gewesschule zu Aachen". then, the Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahtforschung; and on to the USAAF library at Wright Patterson, and finally to the Library of Congress. "Wright Field Library" is rubber stamped on the text block's top and bottom. Nice copy.

"In February and April 1826, Ohm published two important papers that dealt separately with the two major aspects of his ultimately unified theory of galvanic electricity. The first, “Bestimmung des Gesetzes, nach welchem Metalle die Contaktelektricitä leiten, nebst einem Entwurfe zu einer Theorie des Voltaischen Apparates und des Schweiggerschen Multiplicators,” announced a comprehensive law for electric current that brought order into the hitherto confused collection of phenomena pertaining to the closed circuit, including the solution to the problem of conductibility as he and others had conceived of it.[in Schweigger’s Journal für Chemie und Physik, 46 (1826), 137–166.] The second paper, “Versuch einer Theorie der durch galvanische Kräfte hervorgebrachten elektroskopischen Erscheinungen,”[offered above] broke new ground in associating an electric tension with both open and closed galvanic circuits." [DSB referencing Poggendorff’s Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 6 (1826, 459–469; ibid., AND volume 7(1826), 45–54, 117–118 in footnote 6 [offered below].

Provenance: formerly from the library of the Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahtforschung; and on the USAAF library at Wright Patterson, and finally to the Library of Congress. Few interior stamps, plus "Wright Field Library" rubber stamped on the text block's top and bottom. That all said, a very nice copy. $400 Offered in the full volume of 644pp.

The Bookman's Bus will definitely take you from point A to Point B, though it might not be a direct route, even when the direct route is the only route--there are stops to be made, turns to be taken, and of course turns to be built before they can be taken; eventually though you'll get to your destination, or not. And the destination can change, according to what is found along the way--it can get closer, or farther, as necessary. It is in the getting-there that some real stuff may happen.

I was looking for the Annalen der Physik publication by Gauss and Weber on the first use of an electromagnetic telegraph, but I was looking in 1843 rather than 1833, which is a mistake I often make (which is weird because Morse's telegraph appears in 1837 and his code in 1843, so the date mix-up is a mystery. So with the retrieved volume 59 I realized that I was ten years off from where I wanted to be, but like any practicing reader I browsed--and my general book browsing practice is back-to-front, which is how I found a good article by Clapeyron, almost at the end of the book in the 8th section. I went a little further to see the neighbors for the Clapeyron in the 644-page book and the very paper preceding turned out to be a fairly significant paper in the history of physics and acoustics--Georg Simon Ohm's on what would be known as Ohm's Law of Acoustics. That would be the other Ohm's law. The big Ohm (published in his pamphlet Die Galvanische Kette in 1827) is one of the most powerful of the 19th century, and states "a relationship between the voltage across an electric circuit, the electrical resistance in the circuit, and the current in the circuit."(--Dictionary of Scientific Biography.)Ohm's law of acoustics doesn't take such a big bite out of the not-determined but is significant in the history of acoustics: "The proposition that the human auditory system responds to a complex sound by generating sensations of the separate components of the sound rather than a sensation of a single integrated sound; thus when we listen to an orchestra we hear the separate instruments although the ears receive only a single complex sound wave."(--Oxford Reference) And for the record the paper's title: "Ueber die Definition des Tones , nebst daran geknupster Theorie der Sirene und oehnlicher tonbildender Vorrichtungen", pp 513-565).

There were other interesting papers populating this volume, several of which had to do with early photography, including a work on using the Daguerreotype with the microscope, along with two papers by Moser (one of which was the first German translation of his work on "Invisible Light"), and another on shortening the time of exposures by the soon-to-be-very-famous H. Fizeau. Also there are two not-so famous papers by the famous Lenz (a two-parter, actually, on heat flow). There are others, not the least of which is a paper famous perhaps not for the complicated theory on the development of mountain ranges that was wrong, but for the data that was collected for the construction of the not very good theory--that was the work of Jean-Baptiste Elie de Beaumont, who had a long and distinguished career though not for his mountain theory.

So. There was a lot in this volume, and a lot of it turned out to be very interesting, in spite of teh fact that I had selected the wrong volume to begin with.

OHM, Georg S. "Galvanische Einzelnheiten", in Annalen der Physik, II/63, 1844, pp 389-405. Offered in the full volume of viii, 597, (ii)pp. Black cloth-backed marbled boards with cloth tips. Formerly from the library of the Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahtforschung; and on the USAAF library at Wright Patterson, and finally to the Library of Congress. Few interior stamps, plus "Wright Field Library" rubber stamped on the textblock's top and bottom. That all said, a very nice copy. $500

OHM, Georg S. "Ueber eine Interferenz-erscheinung bei ein axigen Krystallplatten in geradling polarisirtem Lichte", in Annalen der Physik, 1853, series II/volume 90, pp 327-332. Formerly from the library of the Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahtforschung; and on the USAAF library at Wright Patterson, and finally to the Library of Congress. Few interior stamps, plus "Wright Field Library" rubber stamped on the textblock's top and bottom. That all said, a very nice copy. $250